O Corpo

Three fairly unlikeable young women break into a house and are left in a difficult situation following an accident.

This is all about moral quandaries but not particularly interesting ones due to the boring characters involved. There is little tension built up and due to the unsympathetic characters you really couldn't care less what happens to them. Although the bland dialogue doesn't help the acting is uniformly wooden from all concerned.

This film is only just over an hour long but it seems longer. It's rare to find films with hardly any redeeming features but this is one of them. There is literally no excitement at all as it limps to a dull climax.

A very poor film.

Greetings again from the darkness. Positioned as a "thriller", this Oak Cliff Film Festival entry is more psychological study than fright-fest or whodunit. Co-written and co-directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, the film takes the rare and welcome approach of placing twenty-something females in the role of accidental trouble-makers who must make morally-clouded decisions under stress.

Home for the holidays, three long-time friends are hanging out together on Christmas Eve – just drinking wine, playing Scrabble, smoking pot, and teasing each other. After a "dark" opening featuring a frantic 911 call, the film is allowed to breathe for the next 15- 20 minutes as we get to know the personalities of Holly (Helen Rogers), Cali (Alexandra Turshen), and Mel (Lauren Molina). Their banter … and the fallout from triple word "satin" … provide us with the insight to connect with each of the ladies.

Seeking a chance to cut loose and enjoy their "girl time", they head over to a mansion supposedly belonging to an uncle of one of the girls. Booze, video games, laughing and dancing seem innocent enough until Arthur the groundskeeper (Larry Fessenden) enters the house and confronts the girls. While it sounds like the set-up to this week's horror film, it has more in common with Very Bad Things (1998). A tragic accident forces the girls into discussions and decision-making that's not usually associated with Christmas Eve.

What keeps our interest isn't so much the situation, it's the fact that we are rarely exposed to on screen women in such a mess. The varying female personalities negotiate the next best steps and the alpha in the group may or may not be the smartest (remember Scrabble!). With their own morals pushing and pulling their thoughts, it's fascinating that a trumped up attempted-rape accusation (and groan inducing evidence tampering) may be their best defense.

After a couple of twists, it's interesting to see how far one's moral compass can be adjusted for the sake of self-preservation, and to see how the bond's of friendship can be either a life preserver or cement boots. Don't look to this for your Friday night fright … though there is one jump-inducing moment … but rather view it as a chance to ask yourself how you would react in such an accidentally tragic turn of events.

For a movie that starts out with having refreshingly realistic portrayals of young women (for a movie of this genre) it's almost painful to bear witness to the very conclusion of the film as it goes against those very portrayals.

Put under pressure humans can be driven to go against their nature of course but the very end there simply was no need for it, just add a last minute twist for the sake of adding a last minute twist is just poor writing.

But the road there is still enjoyable so I'll still give it a 6, even though the ending truly was pushing it.

No complaints regarding the acting or script etc otherwise though.

Obviously low budget. Not a unique story. But it had the heart to be entertaining in spite of itself. They were fun characters to watch work through their horrific scenario. Works with what it's got and is as good as it could be.

This low budget film was much better than I was expecting. It's about three girlfriends spending some time together on a Friday night. In an attempt to remedy their boredom, they end up in a lavish house where things go awry.

From the start you can easily see that this is a low budget film and the initial acting comes off a bit cheesy. In my opinion, the acting seemed to improve as the filmed progressed and the low budget feel seemed to fade away. The plot isn't a new concept and you'll see all the typical bad decisions being made. I still found it to be somewhat entertaining. It's not the best but it isn't a bad film.